Happy Houses: Embroidered Pictures Brighten History

Artist Hagar Vardimon-Van Heummen finds old photos of houses in books, cuts them out, and adds a rather happy element to the often-gloomy images.

Using colorful embroidery thread, the artist stitches shapes and patterns right onto the pictures. Some cover the entire original picture; others add unexpected shocks of color around and atop the homes.

One of the loveliest parts of Vardimon-Van Heummen’s creations is the way the thread can extend the homes’ spatial scope or make them appear to be in the midst of floating away.

The combined materials are a bit outside of the norm, adding a layer of personality and contemporary charm to the pictures that were previously only static images of the past.